Nostalgia & History > RR Tracks on Ice

The Tanana River Railroad Bridge at Nenana, Alaska was opened in 1923. Before that in the summer a ferry service was used. In the winter a track was laid across the river. My research shows it was 3-foot gauge with small steam engines. The following four photos show the operation.

Note, these photos and captions are from Alaska's Digital Archives.

1. Engine 830 on the ice at Tanana River. Nenana. Dec. 11, 1921. UAF-1984-75-33 University of Alaska Fairbanks

2. U. S. Alaskan Railway. Crossing the river on the ice. Later the regular passenger train ran across - up until the building of the bridge in 1922. UAF-1991-46-418 University of Alaska Fairbanks

3. Rail across the ice at Nenana showing type of locomotive used. Dec 11th, 1921. Lettering on locomotive reads, "U. S. 830." UAF-1984-75-31 University of Alaska Fairbanks


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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/14 12:42 by MartyBernard.

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4. Transferring mail from narrow gauge train on the ice at Nenana. UAF-1984-75-284 University of Alaska Fairbanks

Enjoy,
Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/14 12:40 by MartyBernard.

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Very interesting.
For a time in the mid-1800's before a bridge was built, the PRR (or their predecessor line) was able to run on temporary track across the ice on the Susquehanna River between Perryville and Havre de Grace, MD. Otherwise they had to use a ferry boat.

Looks like a Porter Tank engine due to inclined cylinders, with an added 4 wheel tender.
Kind of like mine...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/14 13:06 by Kimball.

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"Ice Train Railroaders!"

Cheers,
Jack

Ice Track Railroaders. :-)


africansteam Wrote:
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> "Ice Train Railroaders!"
>
> Cheers,
> Jack

Greg Ramsey
Las Vegas, NV

atsfm177 Wrote:
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> Ice Track Railroaders. :-)

God help us. ;-)

Egads, when you said "ice bridge", I was expecting what Omaha had in the first winters while building the Trans Continental. But Omaha's "ice bridge" was not, as a lot of people around here think, actually built on the ice of the Missouri River. Omaha's bridge was instead a temporary low trussle that had to be removed before the river boat season started up again (see pics).

Your's truly an ice bridge!

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Northern Pacific did lay their tracks right across the ice of the Red River replacing ferry to Fargo, ND their first year, before a permanent bridge was built.

Also many logging railroads in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin built over ice on lakes and swamps, as late as the 1920's.

These were all standard gauge.

-John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/14 15:00 by LarryDoyle.